Gold CDs: Gimick or the real deal?

[Curtis]

I think most people know what I'm talking about. Classic albums are sometimes rereleased on CDs with a gold reflective layer. Let me just start out by saying that I've never heard one. But they seem pretty suspicious to me. Supposedly they have "super clean sound" but if they did I would think that they would be more poplular than they are/were.

Has anyone here compared a gold cd with a regular version? Is there a big difference, or any difference at all?

[shokhead]

They look purty.

[Curtis]

omg k

[RGA]

My feeling and it's just a guess is that these were remastered and that is why they sound better more than just the colour. So either way you are getting a better sounding disc - but the gold itself improving the sound -- well I'd be skeptical.

[noddin0ff]

I'll make a guess that the Gold CD's may actually last longer... I think when the Gold ones started rolling out, regular CD's had a shorter shelf life. I could be making this up.

[Kaboom]

no, you ain't making it up. In regular CDs the reflective layer is made out of aluminum. Aluminum is very reactive and rusts pretty quickly, so normal CDs can eventually fail. I think an estimate for CD shelf life was around 30-40 years (now i could be making that up) but i know that gold CD manufacturers claim shelf lifes of around 300 years (i know i'm not making that one up)
as for differences in sound quality, my money says they sound exactly the same. But i will still dump 100 bucks for one of them REALLY COOL MFSL gold CDs...

[JoeE SP9]

I don't know if they sound any better. They sure do look cool though. I have Kind Of Blue on Gold CD and the 20bit re-issue. I believe they are from the same source. I can't hear any difference. The Gold one does impress people.

[Woochifer]

Most of these Gold CDs are transferred with greater attention to detail, and using better mastering engineers than a lot of the run of the mill major label CDs that you see. (especially with the early edition CDs that often got transferred with no involvement from the original recording engineer/producer or artist, and without accounting for whether the original master tape was tweaked to sound optimal on vinyl) With a lot of the poorly done CDs, just some better mastering would improve things greatly, regardless of whether the material is gold or aluminum.

Does the gold layer affect the sound quality? The only way you can answer this question would be to have aluminum and gold CDs pressed from the same master source. And none of us have the studio access required to conduct such a test. So, you're left with comparing the actual discs, and if the gold CDs do sound better, then the substrate material is but one of many variables that potentially contribute to the higher sound quality.

[Shwamdoo]

The Absolute Sound discusses the 24 karat gold CD-R made by MoFi in the future TAS section of issue 152. Supposedly these discs offer, "instantaneous pit burning for a very low error rate, a high level of reflectivity, no corrosion, and greater resistance to scratches as well as light and heat. Each disc undergoes four levels of quality control, comes with a lifetime warranty, and is supposed to retain its specifications for 300 years."

[Lexmark3200]

Yeah, ya know, I always wanted to buy the first BOSTON album on that GOLD CD thats out there for this title, because this is one of my absolute favorite classic rock albums, but I was skeptical at what I was getting,,,,,,,I thought the sound quality on the standard issue CD of this album from Sony sounded OK as it was; better than the sratchy vinyl version I had anyway, but I was wondering the SAME thing about GOLD CDs........

Is there a final verdict on this? Should we be staying away from these things because of market hype?